WaPo, Boston Globe, Others Laughably Trumpet Obama Budget's 'Deep' Cuts to 'Rein in Deficits'

Alex Fitzsimmons
February 15th, 2011 3:35 PM
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With the unveiling of Obama's 2012 budget today, some newspapers around the country framed the $3.7 trillion proposal as a serious attempt to slash the federal deficit.

The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Daily Herald, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and the DC Express, couched the administration's massive budget as a fiscally responsible plan that makes "deep" and "big" cuts to "rein in deficits."

"Obama budget makes deep cuts, cautious trades," trumpeted the Post's A-1 headline, even though the federal government is expected to run a $1.1 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2012.

The Globe echoed the Post with an above-the-fold headline that could have been ripped out of a White House press release: "Deep cuts, chance of gains for state in Obama budget."

A hyperbolized Express headline read, "BURNED BY THE BUDGET." Express, a local DC paper owned by The Washington Post, attacked Obama's plan from the Left, lamenting that the proposed cuts would "spread the pain to just about every American."

In Obama's home state of Illinois, the Herald's sub-headline intoned, "Obama's big budget has some big cuts within it."

While the Herald at least admitted that its former state senator's proposed budget is "big," the Star-Telegram made the fatuous assertion that "Obama plan aims to rein in deficits" with only $90 billion in cuts to federal spending.

During the presidential press conference this afternoon, April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio, cited the Congressional Black Caucus to rail against spending cuts, which she claims were tantamount to "rebuilding our economy on the backs of the most vulnerable Americans."

"It’s not good to make these types of cuts at a time of recession," lectured Ryan, who prefaced her critique by reminding Obama that he started his career as a "community organizer."

By the administration's own estimates, the country would have to borrow an additional $7.2 trillion through 2021. With such a bleak bottom line, it strains credulity to claim that Obama's budget blueprint calls for "deep," and "big" cuts that will "rein in" spending and "spread the pain to just about every American."

--Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.